100th Birthday of Slovenian Film Celebrated

Ljubljana, 5 June

"We want Slovenian film to be part of our national culture, and we want to support it. This is a commitment of culture policy," Culture Minister Vasko Simoniti stressed as he addressed the main ceremony marking 100 years of Slovenian film on Sunday evening.

In a review of the history of Slovenian film, Simoniti praised its achievements and highlighted the role of several institutions which promote the national film industry.
"Slovenia has a good basis for film production, which is, if compared to its beginnings, superbly organised and represents one of the main focuses of Slovenian culture," he said at the arts centre Cankarjev dom on the eve of the 61st FIAF congress.
He also reminded that the last national film institution to be established in 1996 was Slovenian Cinematheque, which is in charge of taking care of the memory about domestic and international film achievements.
Simoniti also touched on the dark side of Slovenian film, namely the constant lack of funds. "Yet, if culture policy wants to have and support this segment of national culture, then it has to get used to great coats of film production," he said.
Before Simoniti's address, a short film by Slavko Hren paid tribute to the late director of Slovenian Cinematheque Silvan Furlan. Furlan, who has died recently, gave the initiative for Ljubljana to host a FIAF congress.
The ceremony continued with a premiere screening of three restored films by the father of Slovenian film, Karol Grossmann: "Odhod z mase v Ljutomeru" (People Leaving the Mass Service in Ljutomer), "Fair at Ljutomer" and "Na domacen vrtu" (In My Garden).
They were made in 1905 by lawyer and photographer Karol Grossmann (1864-1929). In the first, he filmed people leaving church after Sunday service, which is considered to be the first Slovenian film.
The first Slovenian silent feature film, "In Zlatorog's Kingdom", was the next to be screened. The film, made in 1931 by Janko Ravnik, was accompanied by live music.
The film was scored for the event by Andrej Goricar, whose music was performed by the Symphonic Orchestra of RTV Slovenija and conducted by Helmut Imig.
On Monday Ljubljana hosted the 61st congress of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF). The seven-day congress will bring together more than 200 representatives of film archives and cinematheques from around the world.
The congress, the largest in scale so far, is organised by Slovenian Cinematheque and the Slovenian Film Archive at the National Archives.

100th Birthday of Slovenian Film Celebrated

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